BigSeefut

Yesterday, I learned what Scabies is.   When I got to Katie’s school, I overheard a teacher saying, “The kid hasn’t been here all week, so I don’t know what’s been infected.”  huh?!?!  When I went into the classroom, our teacher told us to read the bulletin board and to take all of Katie’s extra clothes home to wash.  Scary!  I don’t know if the infected kid was actually in Katie’s class but luckily Katie isn’t showing any symptoms.

Scabies is a common skin infection that causes small itchy bumps and blisters due to tiny mites that burrow into the top layer of human skin to lay their eggs.

The burrows sometimes appear as short, wavy, reddish, or darkened lines on the skin’s surface, especially around the wrists and between the fingers. A child who has contracted scabies can also develop a bumpy red rash.

Scabies is contagious, and is usually transmitted by skin-to-skin contact or through sexual contact with someone else who is infected with it. The infection spreads more easily in crowded conditions and in situations where there is a lot of close contact — like childcare centers or nursing homes.

The most common symptom of scabies is severe itching, which may be worse at night or after a hot bath. A scabies infection begins as small, itchy bumps, blisters, or pus-filled bumps that break when you scratch them. Itchy skin may become thick, scaly, scabbed, and crisscrossed with scratch marks.